Recap Of Strategies For All Reading Question Types

Always read the instructions for answering the questions carefully. If your answers are not according to those instructions then you will loose marks.

Although it is a reading test, do not immediately start reading the passages. Always read the questions first and make a mental note of what you will be looking for in the passage.

Learn to skim and scan the text for information rather than reading each word. read the first and last sentence of each paragraph to get the gist of the paragraph.

Each reading question is worth 1 mark. So if you get stuck on a question just skip it and come back to it later.

The 3 reading passages progress in difficulty, with first being the easiest and third the hardest. So first reading passage should take not more than 16-17 minutes.

Don't forget to fill out the answer sheet. You do not get extra time to copy your answers to answering sheet and so you need to do it in the 60 minutes that you have.

You may write in pencil only, no pens are allowed.

All info is given in the reading text. Don't use assumptions or previous knowledge to guess answers.

Learn to recognize the different types of questions and use the appropriate strategies to answer them.

Most reading questions are ordered in such a way that their answers appear in a sequence in the passage text: so the answer to question 2 will come after the answer to question 1 and so on. The only exception are Matching questions eg. Match Headings, Match Information etc where it would defeat the purpose.

Learn to quickly identify synonyms, paraphrases (short bits of sentences that describe a word) and different parts of speech of words. You will need this to identify where to locate the answer in the passage after picking out keywords from the question. Often the words used in the question will be synonyms or paraphrases of words from the text.

You cannot afford more than 6-10 errors if you want to score IELTS Band 7 in Reading

Get into a habit of reading 1 hour each day to get comfortable with reading English words.

Here are some more tips and strategies on how to improve your band score in IELTS Reading: